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Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

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Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#151

Post by hombre_fatal »

freehunter wrote: post #121
goshx wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because it's being done by different companies it doesn't make it right. It's a shady way to lure customers and mislead them. They manipulate these fees in order to have a lower price displayed on the search results.

If Hotel Tonight isn't a real company because of these hidden fees, then neither are the actual hotels charging the fees. If Hotel Tonight should be in prison because of these fees, then so should the hotels actually charging them. If you hate Hotel Tonight because of the fees, you shouldn't be staying at the hotel actually charging the fees.

> If you hate Hotel Tonight because of the fees

Once again, the issue is that HotelTonight deliberately implemented a dark pattern to hide the price. They know the fee amount. They display it. They could've shown it as part of the itemization, but they specifically did not.

Okay, hotel websites do this too? So what? TFA is about HotelTonight.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#152

Post by calbear81 »

zackmorris wrote: post #90

This looks like a good opportunity to discuss something I'm concerned about regarding booking apps. We used Expedia I believe to book a hotel last year and I remember that it charged a $20 fee on top of an $80 hotel room. I believe they had an agreement where the online and in-person price was the same, so the hotel basically ate that $20. So it's good for them to get the constant business (similarly to how Groupon w…

When the hotel participates with an OTA like Expedia or others, they are not paying for the facilitation of the booking, they are paying for the demand that Expedia has generated for the hotel. An unsold room is perishable every night and the cost of not participating on Expedia is that the room is empty instead of being filled at a $20 lower profit margin.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#153

Post by strychn9ne9 »

throwaway-1283 wrote: post #147
crushcrashcrush wrote: post #97

Fantastic product, super concerned about AirBnB acquisition - not because of what they'll do to the product, but I guarantee their partnerships with hotels and hotel groups will evaporate when contracts expire. A hotel working with Airbnb is like BlockBuster working with Netflix to share customer data. The hotels groups aren't as fucking stupid as Blockbuster was, though.

Completely disagree with this analogy. Hotels have their place, and in so many ways they can be superior to a home rental. I am the furthest thing from a luddite, but I personally prefer (as I know many others) hotels to Airbnb. There's a consistency to the hotel product that you can't get with Airbnb that I place a premium on, especially for short or last minute stays. I'm also not really sure why Airbnb is consider…

I think Airbnb shines with large groups. Me and 10 friends can split a house in the mountains or in some European city for a fraction of getting multiple rooms in a Hotel - with much less hassle.

However, if I'm traveling by myself or with my partner, hotels still seem the way to go. Valet parking in a city centre with room service can make a stay much comfortable.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#154

Post by samstave »

AirBnB has massive amount of money and clout.

What should one do with money and clout?

Build a thing...

What type of thing?

AirBnBs are consumed by primarily individuals/couples

How provid?

Welp - where do they go?

They have the data.

So - how about buy up and build tiny-home communities in highest ABnB places?

Partner with Epic Tiny Home providers such as WindRiverTinyHomes

Why not throw that clout around on city planning depts whi dont know how to zone, divest parcels... Alameda is an example - whom I have spoken with about just this

Why not work with Warren Buffets Manufactured Homes groups (whom I have spoken with) to make an inventory....

Why not do many things...

Fuck AIRBnB - have a 20 year vision.

Build a freaking community based on a bolt-on tiny home over a shared common infrastructure in a very common design-build model. (Ive designed built gas stations, fast food, cell sites, data centers, and millions of square feet) - there are LOTs of people like me.

Go build something.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#155

Post by mrcodedude »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #140
jjeaff wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the hotel websites aren't the cheapest prices. They get around it by selling the discount rooms through sites like hotwire or Priceline. So you can't actually see the name of the hotel until checkout. I frequently get cheaper prices than the hotel site by going through hotwire.

That's called opaque pricing, and that's different since you are getting a discount in exchange for not knowing which specific hotel you are getting to stay at so it's not exactly comparable to going to your preferred hotel's website and choosing the room you want. However, as I have edited into my prior comments, I am finding that the best price guarantees may not apply on the day of arrival, and third party website…

You can save even more if you use a cashback site when booking through Priceline, Orbitz, etc.

The Best Price Guarantee is largely a lie. It's a Best Price Guarantee on a rack-rate rooms. The problem is most OTAs will offer a significant discount (sometimes more than 50%) for a non-refundable room. The rooms are exactly the same, they just classify them differently, so they don't have to actually have the best price.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#156

Post by snark42 »

crushcrashcrush wrote: post #97

Fantastic product, super concerned about AirBnB acquisition - not because of what they'll do to the product, but I guarantee their partnerships with hotels and hotel groups will evaporate when contracts expire. A hotel working with Airbnb is like BlockBuster working with Netflix to share customer data. The hotels groups aren't as fucking stupid as Blockbuster was, though.

> not because of what they'll do to the product, but I guarantee their partnerships with hotels and hotel groups will evaporate when contracts expire.

I'm not sure. It may be harder to book future dates with HT after the contracts expire, but in my experience HT is most useful when AirBnB isn't (same day booking.)

I'd imagine hotels probably like the last minute bookings. Also you can book at 1 or 2am when hotwire cuts you off at midnight and many other ways of booking stop working after about 10pm.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#157

Post by kdot »

Scoundreller wrote: post #132
jjeaff wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, what kind of data could they really want? Lists of people who stay in hotels when they travel? Probably cheaper ways to get marketing lists like that. Their market is essentially anyone and everyone that travels. They probably want to put Airbnb listings as options on the hotels tonight app.

Targeting. If you know someone goes to London every November, your targeting return just went up 100x.

The nature of HT is last minute spur of the moment bookings.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#158

Post by therealx »

Theres one other feature of HotelTonight thats super useful - I often want to book a room very late into the night. Think finding a room at 11pm or 1am. A lot of hotels dont want to deal with you or aren't sure how to handle the rate/days. HotelTonight made that unquestionable and easy.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#159

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

throwaway-1283 wrote: post #147
crushcrashcrush wrote: post #97

Fantastic product, super concerned about AirBnB acquisition - not because of what they'll do to the product, but I guarantee their partnerships with hotels and hotel groups will evaporate when contracts expire. A hotel working with Airbnb is like BlockBuster working with Netflix to share customer data. The hotels groups aren't as fucking stupid as Blockbuster was, though.

Completely disagree with this analogy. Hotels have their place, and in so many ways they can be superior to a home rental. I am the furthest thing from a luddite, but I personally prefer (as I know many others) hotels to Airbnb. There's a consistency to the hotel product that you can't get with Airbnb that I place a premium on, especially for short or last minute stays. I'm also not really sure why Airbnb is consider…

I honestly question who hotels are for. I'm in the top 2% in income, and I actually prefer staying in a hotel, but they'r e just insanely expensive.

Do you mostly stay in hotels for business reasons? Or are you just rolling in money?

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#160

Post by jimmy1 »

chadash wrote: post #149
jimmy1 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A hotel working with Airbnb is like BlockBuster working with Netflix to share customer data. The hotels groups aren't as fucking stupid as Blockbuster was, though. I don't feel like this analogy applies, however. You can make the argument that hotels are better than AirBnB. It depends on what you value. If you are business traveler (or heck maybe even not), you probably prefer a hotel because you know you are getti…

I think this misses the point of the analogy. Airbnb and netflix are both new competitors to hotels and blockbuster respectively, which are (or were) the entrenched players. Whether hotels are better or worse than apartment rentals doesn't matter. The point is that generally, companies don't want to share data with or help out their competition.

> Whether hotels are better or worse than apartment rentals doesn't matter

It absolutely matters. Blockbuster in it's later years was not only entrenched, but also a bad experience. People were tired of being price gouged with late fees. Netflix was a better experience, even if you got your DVD a couple days later.

> companies don't want to share data with or help out their competition.

We share data with our competition all the time. It may help them, but it also helps us as well. You must decide if the business value it brings you is greater than the perceived data it brings them. Obviously you don't want to share market secrets, but sharing some logistical data doesn't seem too harmful. You aren't sharing the "secret sauce"

Sometimes competitors make the best friends.

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